While the year is unspecified, it can be assumed that The Gold Cadillac takes place in the United States in the 1950s. The story itself revolves around the difference in laws in southern and northern states, as ’lois learns about racism through a trip to Mississippi from Ohio. After the end of slavery in the United States through the late 1960s, Southern states enacted laws that limited Black Americans’ rights to participate equally in society. Known as “Jim Crow laws” (named after a character from a minstrel show), these statutes “marginalize[d] African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities” (“Jim Crow Laws.” History.com, 23 April 2023). Such laws also encoded racism in the form of “white only” public amenities, businesses, and schools. Northern states enacted their own forms of Jim Crow laws, and some neighborhoods and businesses were segregated.

Though the North grappled with racism, often that racism was in practice, rather than in policy. After World War II, the American civil rights movement heralded important nationwide milestones such as racial integration of the military (1948), the

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